Councillor stands down from post

Paul Blanchard said he wanted to make a fresh start

A by-election will be held in York after a Labour councillor resigned from his post to pursue business interests in London.

Paul Blanchard, who was recently declared bankrupt, said he was standing down in order to make a "fresh start" in the capital.

Mr Blanchard, 34, represented the City of York Council's Heworth area for six years and stood for parliament in 2005.

He also spearheaded a campaign to ban the sale of the delicacy foie gras.

Mr Blanchard, who ran his own marketing business, said it had been a "great privilege" representing Heworth but it was "time to move on".

He told BBC News: "I have got into a financial predicament. I see my financial future and my business future being in London and I have been spending of late a lot of time in London, to the point where I just thought 'this is not working out' in terms of having to travel back to York to do council meetings.

"When I lived in Heworth I used to walk my dog Sweep around the ward every single day and I bumped into constituents and would pick up a lot of case work but with me spending three or four days a week in London you don't have that and I think the people of Heworth deserve a councillor that's going to be there for them."

York Labour Party leader David Scott said: "Labour will move forwards and I wish Paul well.

"We will battle hard to win the trust of those voters and hope that they see the efforts of Labour councillors across the city means they will be well represented by the person that replaces Paul and fights a by-election in Heworth".